Thwack
by EveryMomentMarked
Summary: Thwack! "Leah," Jacob growled,rubbing the spot at the back of his head where Leah had smacked it "if you weren't a girl..." "If I wasn't a girl, what?" Leah challenged.  And so begins one night on patrol.  Short one-shot Jacob and Leah. T for language.


_Thwack!_

"Hey!" Jacob yelled as his head snapped forwards and threw him off-balance. He narrowly avoided tripping face-first into the sand. "If you weren't a girl…" Jacob threatened, rubbing the spot at the back of his head where Leah had smacked it.

"If I weren't a girl – what?" Leah challenged.

Jacob mumbled something about "ass" and "Timbuktu".

"Yeah, well, some days I wish _your_ ass was in Timbuktu," Leah retorted, "and that still probably wouldn't be far enough away to not hear all the shit in your head. I'm so tired of hearing the name _Bella_. And I'm sick to death of having images of her pale leech-loving ass shoved down my throat!"

Leah had stopped walking and had turned to face Jacob as she delivered her tirade against the setting sun. They had nearly finished their shift on patrol, on two legs instead of four; at Leah's insistence. Jacob had, admittedly, been distracted by memories of walking the same beach with Bella earlier. Being in wolf-form only seemed to magnify every emotional facet of that morning – as if he were condensed to just _feeling_. Feeling frustrated because Bella had been making weak excuses about not seeing him as often because of _him_, because _he_ was worried about what a wolf might do to her. Feeling fury at the way Edward could manipulate her. Feeling indignation because before _he_ came back she had no problem hanging around a wolf – around a whole goddamned pack of them! Feeling doubt when Bella left in a flurry of sand and tears. God, how he hated to see her cry. And finally, feeling an awful desperation that shook him more thoroughly than wolf-tremors: he was losing her.

_Thwack!_

"Leah!" Jacob howled, "I swear…" He gritted his teeth and fought back a tide of tremors.

Spying a piece of driftwood, he picked it up and hurled it out towards the water, grunting heavily as he released it. Looking back at Leah he nodded in its direction, smirked, and commanded, "Fetch!"

Leah's eyes narrowed and her lip curled upwards in a snarl. "What's the matter with you, Black?" she spit back, "Why can't you just go out, get laid like any other normal horny teenager and forget about her? God knows there's plenty enough girls that'd be only too happy to help you– the number of them I've seen making those googly eyes at you," Leah rolled her own eyes as she pursed her lips together.

"I'm not just looking to get laid," Jacob denied angrily as he kicked the sand.

"Maybe you should be. And since it looks like _Bells _is only interested in things without a pulse….like I said, plenty of pretty young things around here…." Leah shrugged, "Then you'll see that this is just….puppy love. Just a fucking teenage crush," she finished flatly.

Jacob spun around, dark eyes intent on Leah's, "This is **not** just a fucking crush, Leah, so just – shut it. OK? Just leave it alone."

Leah wasn't that easily deterred, "What do you know, Jake, you're just a kid – "

"I have these fantasies," Jacob blurted out hotly. He looked away quickly, shoving his hands in his pockets. Leah thought she could actually see a tinge of red underneath his coppered skin.

She groaned and made a small, disgusted noise at the back of her throat, "Jesus Jake! What did I say? You just need. To. Get. Laid." Leah made another disgusted noise, "And I had better **not** get front-row seats to – whatever - you're imagining."

"No, not _those_ fantasies. Well, OK, there are those fantasies," Jacob shook his head, "but that's not what I meant." He sighed and sat down heavily on a bleached log.

Toeing the sand he admitted, "I have…these stupid… suburban… fantasies. They're just…ordinary."

Leah was quiet.

Jacob swallowed and continued softly, "Like – us – living together in some small, plain house on the rez. Cause that's what we could afford, you know. Me maybe working as a mechanic at a garage in town, and Bells…maybe she's a teacher."

Leah was still quiet.

Jacob started to ramble, "And then I see us sitting at the breakfast table, eating pancakes that she's made. She's a really good cook. And we're just sitting there, talking, and she's in these girly pyjamas and her hair is kind of messed up from sleeping. And it's just….she's just…so my heart kind of does this skipping thing. Or I imagine Bella's standing at a window, looking out over the rez and I'm standing behind her with my arms around her waist. And she's pregnant. And her belly is round and …," Jacob's hands had floated to an imagined roundness in front of him. Jacob cleared his throat, "There's kids – Billy's grandkids – and she's getting older. And I'm getting older. And we're happy."

Looking down at his feet, he repeated, "This isn't just some … crush, Leah."

Realising that all he had heard for the last few minutes was the sound of his own heart thrumming and the waves sieving the sand, Jacob looked up at Leah - and he absolutely knew that she, too, had had stupid suburban fantasies of her own. Once upon a time.

They stayed like that until they started to become silhouettes; until Leah was suddenly looming over Jacob. She was trembling terribly. The only light in her eyes was the reflection of the dying sun and her low voice cut through the darkening silence like a scythe, "And then you'll imprint."

Leah started back towards the tree line, looking like a shuddering leaf on the wind just before it's whisked away. Glancing over her shoulder back at him she said, "Let her leave," before exploding into her wolf skin.

Jacob didn't follow. There would be a story that would be echoing through the forest, one that all the wolves knew by heart; And Jacob didn't want to feel it, not tonight.


End file.
